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Publisher: Austin, Tex. : Landes Bioscience × Subject: Plasma applications ×

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Cold Physical Plasma in Cancer Therapy: Mechanisms, Signaling, and Immunity
    (Austin, Tex. : Landes Bioscience, 2021) Faramarzi, Fatemeh; Zafari, Parisa; Alimohammadi, Mina; Moonesi, Mohammadreza; Rafiei, Alireza; Bekeschus, Sander
    Despite recent advances in therapy, cancer still is a devastating and life-threatening disease, motivating novel research lines in oncology. Cold physical plasma, a partially ionized gas, is a new modality in cancer research. Physical plasma produces various physicochemical factors, primarily reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS), causing cancer cell death when supplied at supraphysiological concentrations. This review outlines the biomedical consequences of plasma treatment in experimental cancer therapy, including cell death modalities. It also summarizes current knowledge on intracellular signaling pathways triggered by plasma treatment to induce cancer cell death. Besides the inactivation of tumor cells, an equally important aspect is the inflammatory context in which cell death occurs to suppress or promote the responses of immune cells. This is mainly governed by the release of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) to provoke immunogenic cancer cell death (ICD) that, in turn, activates cells of the innate immune system to promote adaptive antitumor immunity. The pivotal role of the immune system in cancer treatment, in general, is highlighted by many clinical trials and success stories on using checkpoint immunotherapy. Hence, the potential of plasma treatment to induce ICD in tumor cells to promote immunity targeting cancer lesions systemically is also discussed.
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    Redox Stimulation of Human THP-1 Monocytes in Response to Cold Physical Plasma
    (Austin, Tex. : Landes Bioscience, 2015) Bekeschus, Sander; Schmidt, Anke; Bethge, Lydia; Masur, Kai; von Woedtke, Thomas; Hasse, Sybille; Wende, Kristian
    In plasma medicine, cold physical plasma delivers a delicate mixture of reactive components to cells and tissues. Recent studies suggested a beneficial role of cold plasma in wound healing. Yet, the biological processes related to the redox modulation via plasma are not fully understood. We here used the monocytic cell line THP-1 as a model to test their response to cold plasma in vitro. Intriguingly, short term plasma treatment stimulated cell growth. Longer exposure only modestly compromised cell viability but apparently supported the growth of cells that were enlarged in size and that showed enhanced metabolic activity. A significantly increased mitochondrial content in plasma treated cells supported this notion. On THP-1 cell proteome level, we identified an increase of protein translation with key regulatory proteins being involved in redox regulation (hypoxia inducible factor 2α), differentiation (retinoic acid signaling and interferon inducible factors), and cell growth (Yin Yang 1). Regulation of inflammation is a key element in many chronic diseases, and we found a significantly increased expression of the anti-inflammatory heme oxygenase 1 (HMOX1) and of the neutrophil attractant chemokine interleukin-8 (IL-8). Together, these results foster the view that cold physical plasma modulates the redox balance and inflammatory processes in wound related cells.
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    H2A.X Phosphorylation in Oxidative Stress and Risk Assessment in Plasma Medicine
    (Austin, Tex. : Landes Bioscience, 2021) Schütz, Clarissa S.; Stope, Matthias B.; Bekeschus, Sander
    At serine139-phosphorylated gamma histone H2A.X (γH2A.X) has been established over the decades as sensitive evidence of radiation-induced DNA damage, especially DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in radiation biology. Therefore, γH2A.X has been considered a suitable marker for biomedical applications and a general indicator of direct DNA damage with other therapeutic agents, such as cold physical plasma. Medical plasma technology generates a partially ionized gas releasing a plethora of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS) simultaneously that have been used for therapeutic purposes such as wound healing and cancer treatment. The quantification of γH2A.X as a surrogate parameter of direct DNA damage has often been used to assess genotoxicity in plasma-treated cells, whereas no sustainable mutagenic potential of the medical plasma treatment could be identified despite H2A.X phosphorylation. However, phosphorylated H2A.X occurs during apoptosis, which is associated with exposure to cold plasma and ROS. This review summarizes the current understanding of γH2A.X induction and function in oxidative stress in general and plasma medicine in particular. Due to the progress towards understanding the mechanisms of H2A.X phosphorylation in the absence of DSB and ROS, observations of γH2A.X in medical fields should be carefully interpreted.